Max hadn’t thought of that—he’d just been excited to kick his first goal.

Dad was watching him, so he went and shook Dad’s hand too so he wouldn’t get jealous of Leon. Max could tell from Dad’s smile that he was proud for once. ‘Good on you, my man,’ Dad said. Max was proud too.

He was so stoked about his goal he didn’t want to take his jersey off, even though it was covered in mud. It was like when the men played and got mud all over them. The more mud on their jerseys, the better they’d played—that was what Dad said. Leon was always muddy after a game, because he kept getting mushed on the ground. But he kicked heaps of goals too and never stopped running. Nobody on the men’s team ever said nice things to Leon, but maybe that was okay. It was a whole lot better than bad stuff; Max knew about that from Jaden and the school playground.

Dad was so pleased with Max’s goal he took him to the canteen and said, ‘What do you want?’ Normally, after a game, Dad stalked off and wouldn’t talk to him because he was too mad. Mum said Dad got cross because he was too damned passionate about the game. Dad said he just wanted Max to do well, and was that too much to ask?

Until Leon came along, footy had been terrible for Max, but now things had changed. Maybe Dad would be happier now that his son was a football champion.

Max took ages choosing what to have from the canteen. In the end he decided on a sausage sandwich, a can of Solo and a killer python. It was a bit greedy to ask for so much, but how many weeks had Max missed out when all the other kids got sweets? He shoved the python in his undies because he couldn’t carry everything in his hands; it would keep for later and didn’t take up too much room.

While Dad was buying the food, Mum and Suzie had wandered across to talk to Leon. Leon was laughing and Mum looked happy too. Max wondered if it was because of the goal he had scored. Then he felt worried because he didn’t know if he could ever do it again, and maybe he would never be a real footy star, and maybe Dad would be disappointed next week, and maybe Max would wreck his knee in the mud and that would be the end of his great footy career.

Dad was talking to another parent, so Max went over to see Mum and Leon. When Mum kissed him on the head, he ducked away.

Leon laughed and patted him on the back. ‘You were in good form today. I knew you could do it.’